Three Florida Democrats Are Already Showing Fear

July 28, 1985|By Diane Hirth

Fifteen months before the 1986 elections, three Florida Democratic congressmen already are acting like scared incumbents in the midst of heated re-election battles.

For the past few months, Congressmen Dan Mica, Larry Smith and Sam Gibbons have been busily raising thousands of dollars in Washington and Florida for next year`s campaigns. The three fear they have been targeted for extinction by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

NRCC officials deny that they have a ``hit list`` and say that Mica, Smith and Gibbons are claiming this only to help them raise big bucks so far in advance of the elections. However, the NRCC does plan to spend more than $6 million on media advertising during the next year -- nearly $200,000 in each of 35 congressional districts -- to ``soften up Democrats`` in states where Republicans hope to pick up House seats. The committee will not disclose beforehand where these ads will run.

But Florida is known to be a priority for the GOP in 1986 because of the need to help Sen. Paula Hawkins fight off the challenge from Gov. Bob Graham by generating a strong Republican turnout at the polls.

House Democrats fear that the NRCC is planning to use the hardhitting media tactics developed by the New Right which the GOP tested successfully in Texas and North Carolina in 1984. Democrats say Republicans picked up eight seats in those two states largely because of those ads, which questioned Democrats` motives on certain votes. Smith, D-Hollywood, says he may have been targeted because Republicans are overestimating the size and impact of the Hispanic population in his district. While the number of Hispanics may have grown to about 25 percent of the district population, the congressman said only about half of them go to the polls.

Privately, however, Smith also has been expressing worries that the influx of Hispanic voters makes him more susceptible to a Republican challenger.

Mica, D-Lake Worth, is considered vulnerable because new voters unfamiliar with his record and performance are constantly moving into his rapidly growing district. And Republicans have felt for years that Palm Beach and Boca Raton should be represented in Congress by one of their own, not a Democrat.

The seat held by Tampa Democrat Gibbons is especially attractive to the GOP because every district surrounding his now belongs to a Republican congressman.